


Diagnosis

by SoulOfAFangirl684



Series: Missing Twilight Scenes [1]
Category: Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Balance Disorders, Canon Compliant, Everyone's as in-character as possible, Gen, Missing Scene, One-Shot, POV First Person, Perilymph Fistula, Takes place after the chapter "Phenomenon"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-08-10 02:43:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20128054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoulOfAFangirl684/pseuds/SoulOfAFangirl684
Summary: What if Bella's clumsiness wasn't treated like it was just some endearing quirk?





	Diagnosis

**Author's Note:**

> So here's the thing. I was never really into the Twilight series. Honestly. But I was pre-teen/teen around the time it got huge. With so many of my peers going crazy over it, it was truly inescapable. So I did end up (eventually) reading the books from start to finish. (After rage-quitting it five or six times. And to my surprise, I have since gone on a few Twilight fanfiction kicks, however brief they turned out to be.) I think there ARE some genuinely interesting characters and relationships there. And maybe just a few things that deserved better explanations. So that fanfiction bug did set in when I read the series to completion. (Which was actually just a few years ago.) That's basically what this collection/these two one-shots are.   
And that concludes this episode of Soul's Soapbox! Thank you for indulging me. I hope you enjoy the story/ies.

Though my dream of Edward had been disconcerting, I awoke the next morning determined to make the day as normal as possible. Unfortunately, that hope was dashed the moment I walked downstairs to find Charlie was still home.

I groaned inwardly. I was used to my mother's constant worrying, despite the fact that she could barely take care of _herself_, but I wasn't sure I would be able to stand it if Charlie began watching my every move as well.

He stood stiffly by the counter, and I knew he must have been waiting for me. I'd never seen anyone look more uncomfortable in their own home. I tried to smile at him, tripping down the last couple of steps, which only made him look even more guilty.

"You're still home?" Even as I said them, I knew the words came out sounding a little rude, but Charlie didn't seem offended.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay," he admitted gruffly. My father never had been very good with emotions. "You gave everyone quite a scare yesterday."

"I'm fine, Dad," I cut in quickly, trying to make this encounter as painless as possible. "I'm not even sore." That was a lie. My head was still aching ever so slightly and my coordination seemed even worse than usual, but I wasn't about to tell him that. "I'm just going to grab a bowl of cereal and head to school."

Charlie grinned at me apologetically, and my heart did a little flip. _Uh-oh…_

"Uh, actually, Bells… I don't think you'll be making it to school today… Dr. Cullen called last night, after you'd gone to bed. He, um, he wanted to schedule a follow-up appointment with you, and I told him that would be fine…"

My heart immediately halted its acrobatic routine and sank to the pit of my stomach. I suspected Edward had had a hand in this. Did he really trust me so little? 'Bella Swan hit her head so hard she's going crazy' would be a perfect excuse to discount anything I might say about him. And I was sure that by this time tomorrow the entire school would know of this little 'follow-up' visit.

Both breakfast and the ride to the hospital were uncomfortable in a way that silences with Charlie usually aren't. The only good thing to happen all morning occurred when he agreed to stay in the car, it apparently being all too obvious that I needed some space.

I walked up to the woman behind the desk and explained my situation, doing my best to keep the irritation out of my voice. The secretary smiled at me, and I didn't even have time to claim a seat in the waiting room before she called over a nurse who led me to a private room in the back. It almost made me smile. This town may be a dismal place, but only in Forks would an emergency room visit go so quickly.

The nurse took my height, weight, blood pressure, and all that jazz. After so many trips to the hospital back in Phoenix, I knew this routine by heart. Just moments after the nurse left, Carlisle Cullen entered the room. Once again, I was struck by this man's beauty, but it wasn't quite as mind-numbing as it had been the first time.

He smiled kindly and set down his clipboard, sitting down across from me and gently probing the spot where I'd hit my head yesterday as he spoke.

"It's good to see you again, Miss Swan."

"Bella," I corrected quietly, automatically, letting him work.

"Bella," he amended. "Thank you for coming back."

I chuckled darkly before I could stop myself, and he glanced up questioningly. I explained, "With my track record, you'll probably be seeing me a lot."

"Yes, well, let's hope that's not the case." He pulled his hands away and picked his clipboard back up so he could record my answers. "How are you feeling today?"

"Thank you for checking up on me," I said as graciously as possible, "but, really, I feel fine."

I waited for him to realize this and let me go home, but he just nodded, not looking up. Instead of liberating me, though, he asked another question. "Has your balance gotten any worse since you hit your head?"

I winced. "I wouldn't say it's gotten _worse_… It just wasn't very good to start with."

He nodded again. "Yes, your father mentioned that on the phone last night. Until recently, you lived in Arizona, correct?"

"Yes." It was hard to form any solid suspicions when he kept changing the subject so quickly.

"It must be quite a shock, coming to a place like Forks."

"I miss the sun," I admitted.

"Well, at least it's a shorter drive to the beach."

"Beaches should be warm." I felt a little bad. I was being excessively ornery, and he was trying so hard. I just wanted to get out of this hospital. But Dr. Cullen wasn't giving up that easily.

"But it's the same ocean," he countered pleasantly. "There's always that."

"I'm not much of a swimmer." He was still writing. I shifted ever so slightly in an attempt to read the words, but he looked up and I froze.

"No?"

"N-no. I mean, I used to love going to the beach when I was little, but I got a lot of ear infections, so that kind of killed the experience." He'd caught me off guard. I quickly put a stop to my self-conscious rambling. I figured if Dr. Cullen ever lost his passion for medicine, Charlie could hire him down at the station as an interrogator.

"That's a shame," he said, looking down again.

"Yeah… It was the only sport I ever liked," I admitted wryly.

A smile quirked at the corners of his mouth. "So I take it you're not a fan of gym either?" He chuckled at my clear grimace before focusing again. "Do you ever find your balance getting worse the longer you participate?"

"Usually," I admitted truthfully. Apart from the answers being embarrassing, his questions were making me edgy. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what he was getting at, if not a severe head injury. And if that wasn't frustrating enough, I wasn't even sure why I was embarrassed! I mean, I could barely keep my footing when I was wide awake and alert; _of course _my balance would get worse in the middle of PE when I was tired.

"Are you usually unsteady when you're just walking or standing normally?"

By now my blush was impossible to ignore, and my voice was meek. "Yeah, I guess…" I knew it was his job as a doctor to help, but with each question I was feeling more and more pathetic.

He wrote one final note before setting down his clipboard for good and smiling kindly at me. To my surprise, he detached the paper with all his notes and handed it over. I glanced down at all my carefully-recorded answers before looking back up at Dr. Cullen, confused.

"Well, Bella, I'm not an otolaryngologist, so I can't diagnose you officially, but based on your answers, I believe you may have a balance disorder called perilymph fistula. At the bottom of the page, you'll find the name of a doctor in Seattle that you should go see, and a physical therapist in Port Angeles you may want to contact afterwards."

I was silent for a moment, stunned that this stranger had gone to the trouble of calling me back to look into something I had always assumed was just bad genetics. Charlie hadn't been kidding. Carlisle Cullen was a good man. I tried to speak around the sudden lump in my throat.

"Wow, I… Thank you. Thank you so much."

"It's what I do, Bella. You don't need to thank me. Good luck in Seattle."

Dr. Cullen left, presumably to attend to other patients, and I walked back outside in a bit of a daze, staring at the paper, at this gift he'd left me with.

Perilymph fistula… I'd never heard of it before. Then again, I'd always thought I was just a klutz. It never would have crossed my mind that there could actually be something _wrong_ with me. Something I could put a name to.

I wasn't delusional enough to think physical therapy could _cure_ me, but at this point I would take any improvement. My spirits had lifted considerably by the time I got in the car so Charlie could drive us home.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so it's no secret that Bella Swan is one of the most bland fictional characters ever written. Really, the only quirk she's got to her is her clumsiness, and there's even fault to be found there, because there is no good reason that a perfectly normal seventeen-year-old girl should have less grace than my two-year-old cousin. It's a little ridiculous really. So I came up with this scene to try to make it a little more plausible. 
> 
> Please keep in mind that I am not a doctor. I'm not even a med student, and I don't have a balance disorder myself. Perilymph fistula is a real thing, but I don't know anyone who has it. All my research was done via the internet. I apologize if I made any mistakes.


End file.
